1.23.2025 | Thursday

thursday 13: naturally blue

category: Memetastic
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This is a bit of a companion to an earlier list, naturally pink.


1. blue poison dark frog

image: Living Rainforest

These little guys were only discovered to exist in 1969, as they only live in isolated parts of the rainforest in Suriname and northern Brazil. Their skin carries a poison that can paralyze or even kill any predators. Interestingly, the poison isn’t actually created by the frog but is a result of the poisonous ants it eats.


2. blue iguana

image: National Trust

The blue iguana is currently listed as endangered. Once they numbered in the tens of thousands, but by the beginning of 2000, it was believed that last than 30 remained in the wild. Breeding programs around the world work to restore the population, one program releasing their 1000th blue iguana back into the wild of the Cayman Islands.


3. Neptune

image: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

According to NASA, the blue color that panet appears to be is due to the absorption of red and infrared light by the methane atmosphere of the planet. The methane then reflects the blue color we see. The shade of blue depends on several variables, like the presence of atmospheric particles and changes and the angle of the sun’s rays.


4. blue Carpathian slug

image: Color Psychology

The Carpathian blue slug is a large land slug. Its color is because of biliverdin, a rare pigment. It is created by the breakdown of the slug’s own blood and stored in special skin cells. The intensity of the blue relies on factors such as the slug’s diet, its age, or its enviornment.


5. shining honeycreeper

image: Canopy Tower

These little birds live in the tropics, dwelling in forest canopies. They are usuall less than 4 inches and length and weigh less than half an ounce. They lay just two eggs at a time in shallow cup-like nests.


6. blue starfish

image: Wikipedia

These starfish live in the shallows of the Indo-Pacific. They can grow up to almost a foot in diameter. They have the same regenerative capabilities as many other species of starfish, using the capability as a survival skill. They are able to shed parts of their limbs to escape predators.


7. blue dragon sea slug

image: US Department of the Interior

The blue dragon is an ocean shifter, spending its life moving by the force of currents and winds. It is buoyed on the surface because of a gas bubble in its stomch, belly up to the sky. This camouflages them from sea birds above and while their coloring on their downward-facing side disappears into the bright surface, which hides them from sea predators beneath them. Their feathery tendrils are pretty… but deadly. They contain poisonous stinging cells which they use not only in self-defense but for hunting. Like the poison dart frog, it doesn’t produce its own poison but gets it from the poisonous creatures it eats.


8. blue crayfish

image: Zack Graham via WBOY

The blue crayfish is the only species of crayfish that is indigenous to Florida. They get their blue color because they lack a specific gene. Males have two extra appendages by their back legs, while females don’t have any. Males also have longer claws than their female counterparts.


9. Himaylayan blue poppies

image: Gardenia

This flower gets its color from the pigments produced by the pH of the soil its grown in, as well as by the plant’s UV exposure. It has a life cycle of only two or three years, with flowering only occuring in the second or third year. The petals and stems of this flower are fibrous, creating a “hairiness” that usually puts of both deer and rabbits, a self-defense feature.


10. blue tree monitors

image: London Zoo

Blue tree monitors hail from Batanta, a small island in Indonesia, as well as a few islets off the coast of Irian Jaya. They have one of the smallest distributions of any monitor lizard, likely due to the over harvesting of them by animal traders. They have prehensile tails that allow them to grip branches.


11. Kaman-utek Blue Soil

image:  Aya May Dayaoen via Atlas Obscura

Kaman-utek Blue Soil, also known as the Blue Soil Hills, are found in Balili, Bontoc in the Phillipines. In the Bontoc dialect, kaman-utek means “like a brain,” referencing the folds and ridges of the landscape which resemble the gyris of the brain. The bluish color of the soil is the result of an abundance of copper soil within it. When exposed to both oxygen and the weather, it creates a patina. Rain and humidity, with its changing levels, also changes the shade of blue almost every day. It becomes more intense during the rainy season, and during the dry season it takes on a bit of a green tinge.


12. electric blue day gecko

image: Wikipedia

The survival of these geckos is threatened largely by the illegal collection of them for the international pet trade, although the loss of habitat also contributes to their decline. They are currently listed as critically endangered. Their habitat is small, just 3 square miles within the Kimboza Forest in Tanzania. In the wild they live in the leaf crown of large trees, generally any tree with leaves that are larger than 3 feet long. Their blue color varies, changing with their mood and with the temperature.


13. sinai agama

image: Wikipedia

During breeding season, the blue color of the male of the species intensifies, becoming very bright. It has long, spindly legs that allow them to run very fast, a good defense against predators. They live in the desert, spending their days basking in the sun

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